Bucket Lists and Biking Greece

I retired 5 years ago and since then I've done some adventure bike riding in Greece for 2-3 weeks each year. May and September are the months I look forward to and begin watching the Air Canada fares to Athens with anticipation as my departure date approaches. I've found that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the key days to find the best rates for flights. However, each year is different for deals and I've paid from $770 this past May to $1840 three years ago.

 I've rented bikes in Athens each year at MotoRent on Kavalotti Street. They're the best and I found their insurance coverage is much better than others. Motorcycles are expensive to rent in Greece (as in any country) and you need to be theft conscious. Luckily, Greece is a very safe country with low crime and I'm outside the major cities on my treks anyway. I love Greek history/mythology and that's a major consideration, but the weather, the beaches, the people and the roads are why I go. In my opinion there is no better place to ride an adventure bike.

BMW 650GS in Poros, Kefalonia

On my first trip I considered a big BMW GS1200 as my ride but the bike was pricey. I settled on a smaller bike back then and haven't changed my mind since. They're way easier to maneuver, great on gas (which is very expensive) and have plenty of power for the roads I ride. The BMW 650GS got the best gas mileage at 70mpg. The Suzuki V-Strom was the most comfortable to ride and the Honda TransAlp was the most nimble. From the Athens airport to the city is a 45 minute trip on the Metro and it's a 20 minute walk to MotoRent which is located very close to the Acropolis. Also close to the Acropolis is the Athens Backpackers Hostel which is an excellent place to stay for a night if you're traveling solo like me. It's very clean and modern and actually nicer than a lot of hotels I've stayed in. It is located on a quiet side street right off the Plaka (the main tourist/shopping area). There's a roof bar with an excellent view of the Acropolis and always a great group of fellow travelers to share a beer and a story with every evening until 11pm. 

 I've learned to travel light. I take a backpack with a few clothes, camera stuff and a Bell Pit Boss shorty helmet that fits in my pack. I take my own helmet because I have my GoPro mounts attached to it, it's small enough to fit in the backpack and I really don't trust using a rental helmet. I pity people who travel with large check-in luggage. I never need to wait in lines at airport carousels or worry about lost luggage because it is always with me. The backpack fits under the seat in front of me on a plane too so I never have to fight for space in the overhead bins for storage space. It actually bugs me when I see people waiting to board the plane with several shoulder bags, a laptop and wheeled luggage who will obviously take up more space in the overhead bins than they should be allowed.

Traveling Light

 I've traveled over much of Greece but love the islands. I especially love the western (Ionian) islands and Kefalonia in particular. It's an island of white sand beaches and although it's prone to earthquakes, the coastal vistas are spectacular, as are the mountain roads.

Myrtos Beach

 Myrtos Beach is usually ranked in the top 10 wild beaches in the world. I avoid commercial touristy places when I can and this is why I go in May or September. Tourists are few, beaches are pretty well all naturist friendly, rates are lower and the weather is beautiful. So, this year I went for three weeks in May and I'd reserved a BMW 650GS again. I was heading up the west coast and Kefalonia Island was once more in my plans. I had a special reason for returning there this time that involved a project I'm very interested in. It's called The Odysseus Unbound Project (www.odysseus-unbound.org).

 In 2005 Robert Bittlestone (now deceased) published his book Odysseus Unbound which I'd read and was quite captivated by it. I find the stories of the Greeks' bloody history very interesting and the story of the ten year Trojan War was my favorite. It's probably the most famous war in history. If you know nothing about Greek history, you're familiar with the names of those who fought and died in this war or the gods and goddesses who interfered: Apollo, Achilles, Ajax, Hector, Paris and many others are names we all recognize. But the hero of that war, and the inventor of the Trojan Horse, was Odysseus, or Ulysses (the Roman name). The story reads like Lord of the Rings with fantastic creatures, sorcerers and omniscient beings, and of course J R R Tolkien used it as his inspiration. But unlike Tolkien's tales, the story of the Trojan War has proven to be a true incident. And the legendary cities mentioned in the epic have since been unearthed by archaeologists. These places really existed and in my travels around Greece, I've walked where these mythological heroes actually walked. That's one reason I go to Greece, to see places I'd dreamed of seeing since my youth and to go before I no longer can. I have visited most of the named cities in mainland Greece and Crete, even the location of the Death Oracle, the supposed gates to Hades, but the most famous place in the whole story is an island.

Death Oracle Sanctuary, Tenaron, Greece

It is the island kingdom of Odysseus. It exists today but is not where it was described according to the legend. The Odysseus Unbound Project has found it. So, Robert Bittlestone's book interested me to such a degree that I tried contacting him to learn more about his project. This was three years ago and sadly I received a reply informing me of his demise. However, I later made contact with his successor, John Crawshaw who was coordinating the project. John was kind enough to invite me for a tour of the fabled island to which I quickly agreed. That was last May, 2016. In May, 2017 I returned to visit a special place on the island that we were unable to access last year. This would be the highlight of my many trips around Greece, the virtual crown upon my bucket list: the site of the actual palace of Odysseus. John lives in England and arranged to meet me on the island of Kefalonia where he has built a home.

Kefalonia Island, Greece

He is a kindred spirit and a follower of the mystery of Homer's story as am I, so I liked him immediately. He is also an adventurous type who has wandered the island on foot, usually alone, to seek out the physical places described in the story. I biked up the coast and crossed the causeway to an island called Lefkada. From there I took a ferry to Kefalonia. Because it was May, the ferry was almost empty and the weather warm. While it was raining and still cold in Canada I was enjoying the 30C afternoons here. Ferries are frequent and cheap, 26 euros for the bike and me. Once on Kefalonia I rode south from Fiscardo to Lixouri where I would meet John. The TerraMare Hotel is where I stay when I'm here, which was the third visit. Nicos, the owner is great and knowing I like beer he would occasionally surprise me with a “Ken, it's beer o'clock!” and deliver a Mythos to me at the pool. My kind of guy! Great beer too. Lixouri is on a peninsula which is called Paliki. The Odysseus Unbound Project has theorized that this peninsula was once an island that had a marine channel which has since been filled in due to earthquake activity. An earthquake here in 1953 raised the whole island by 60 cm and killed hundreds. Drilling in the area has provided strong evidence that they are correct. The ancient description of Ithaca is that it is last of the Ionian islands to see the sunset, so it has to be farthest west. However, the current island of Ithaca is farthest east, so cannot be the real island of Odysseus of 3,200 years ago. Paliki is in fact the real ancient island of Ithaca! This discovery will literally change Greek history and is very exciting. It will also change the map of the Ionian Islands. The morning finally arrived like a dream for me. I was at the center of my world here. This day would be the culmination of my trips to Greece. John greeted me and we set out for the palace of Odysseus.

View From Odysseus' Palace

The drive was quite difficult and I commented more than once that John could give courses in 4-wheeling. Some of the roads through private farming areas were not more than goat paths and the final foray was up a rocky ravine made of mostly limestone, strewn with boulders. We then hiked through a forest and traversed several fields (one of which he'd once encountered a bull) before ascending a mountain covered in thickets. These thorny bushes were very thick and covered the entire area so were quite menacing. We were lucky to find however, that the goats that roamed here had made neat little paths through the bushes. Although we had to be careful of the thorns, we eventually wound our way to the top of the mountain virtually unscathed. It was an arduous climb but the reward for me was the satisfaction of being finally at the epicenter of The Odyssey. The view from up there atop fabled Mount Neriton was magnificent. I savored that moment for the time I was there. I'm keeping in touch with the project and if you're interested you can as well. www.odysseus-unbound.org is their website. I have made a little video series on my website if you'd care to visit some of the places from The Odyssey in real life. It's called Odysseus Unbound Tour and the website is www.motorcyclegreece.ca. There are no ads on my videos.

Odysseus Unbound Tour 2016

Since I was a kid I've been interested in Greek mythology. I remember going to the Odeon Theater in 1962 Saint John, NB, and watching The 300 Spartans, starring Richard Egan. That movie left an impression on this youngster. But one of my favorite movies ever is Jason and the Argonauts. It came out in 1963 and I remember it well although I was only nine. I Googled it recently and was not surprised to find that the fight against the skeleton warriors is still a marvel of animation. I still don't know how they did it, making those skeletons of dead soldiers rise out of their graves to fight.

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

Sometime later I read a book called Ulysses Found by Ernle Bradford. It was written by a retired English naval officer who had been stationed in the Mediterranean during WW2. He spoke of one calm midnight during his watch duty on deck that he thought he'd heard the Syrens singing. It was near a small lava island called Gali. After he left the navy he sailed his own boat around the Mediterranean and followed Homer's description of the Odyssey journey. I've reread that tattered paperback several more times over the years, mesmerized by his virtual tour of the old ancient story. That got me thinking about the truth behind the myths of the Argonauts and also the siege of Troy.

Since the Odyssey was treated as a myth, the heroes and places mentioned in the story were just fiction. Or so they thought...

Mycenae, the golden city of great King Agamemnon was discovered. The city Tiryns of “the Cyclopean walls” was discovered. Knossos was discovered. Even Troy itself was unearthed. And they were all found by following Homer's descriptions in his epics The Iliad and The Odyssey.

This led to questions about the reality of the heroes in Homer's accounts. Was he constructing these warriors to fill up his tragic tale? Did he make up a good yarn to convey moral values in a dangerous era?

There is good evidence that these warriors were real people. They lived and breathed. They fought and died, their names and deeds remembered.

Laertes was one of the Argonauts who helped Jason retrieve the golden fleece. It was Laertes' son who is the hero of The Odyssey. Odysseus (or Ulysses to the Romans) has always been of special interest to me and I've visited his island kingdom several times since 1976.

I have recently added another hero to my list although he isn't Greek or from Greek mythology. His name is Robert Bittlestone and his book is called Odysseus Unbound. Robert passed away in 2015 to my surprise as he was my age and his mission was unfinished on this earth. His book and search was to find the real island of Odysseus, hero of the Trojan War.

For a century, scholars have tried to locate the actual island that was described by Homer as the home of Odysseus. That island was described as the one in the group of Ionian islands which would be last to see the sunrise and was also last to see the sunset. Since that would place the island farthest to the west in the island group, the modern day Ithaca does not fit this basic description. It lies farther to the east, closer to the mainland. Robert Bittlestone's theory solves the riddle of Ithaca's location. He found the island of Odysseus. It is an amazing book and he was a very thorough investigator. He was painstaking in his procedures and surrounded himself with experts in their fields.

In May of 2016 I went to Greece to meet John Crawshaw, Project Coordinator of the Odysseus Unbound Project ( http://www.odysseus-unbound.org/ ). I'd been in contact with the project through emails because of my great interest in what they were trying to accomplish. John was kind enough to offer his time for a few days and take me on a tour of a place called Paliki on Kefalonia Island, of what was quite probably the actual site from Homer's tale.

Paliki area of Kefalonia Island, Greece

The terrain we covered on the island was anything but easy. John's Subaru SUV was a necessity to get up the rocky rutted paths and through goat pastures where he took me on the tour. There was even what appeared to be an ancient walled-in area where Odysseus' swineherd, Eumaius, would have minded the pigs. But I got chills when we arrived at what could have been the palace. As I walked through this place my head was full of thoughts about the dining hall where Odysseus, Eumaius and Telamachus killed a hundred of Penelope's suitors.

I was standing at the heart of The Odyssey at last. For a half century I'd dreamed of this place and I was here.

I'm working on a video of my Odysseus Unbound tour and will update here when it is done with a link.

Other videos of recent rides are available on www.motorcyclegreece.ca

My Canadian Bike

 I like adventure bikes. In Greece it's what I ride because roads are sometimes treacherous but always interesting. But at home I have an antique for my ride. It's a bike I dreamed about when I was much younger and finally acquired it later in life.

In 1979 Kawasaki engineers produced a bike they'd been working on for several years. It was to be their first foray into 6 cylinder motorcycles. Honda stole some of their thunder with the introduction of the CBX the previous year. The 1978 CBX 1000 was a sport bike with an air cooled 6 cylinder engine that produced over 100 hp and it received rave reviews.

The 1970s were a time of a major energy crises caused by petroleum shortages. The Middle East oil producers slowed exports and there was a revolution in Iran. To conserve petroleum the U.S.actually reduced interstate highway speed limits to 55 mph.

So into this world was born a behemoth of a motorcycle with a displacement of 1300 cc and 120 hp. It had liquid cooling and a shaft drive like a car. It also would break the interstate speed limit in first gear. The motorcycle was heavy at over 700 lbs. It didn't get rave reviews. But it did raise eyebrows and create a sensation for its complexity and sheer overkill for the time. One bike magazine dubbed  it the Hulk, another named it King Kong.

At the time I'd just bought a 1978 KZ1000 and quite liked it. But the 1300 was a bike I drooled over just because of the size of the thing.

I used to read all the cycle mags of the time and I remember coming across an article about a Finnish guy who'd set a world record for wheelies. He'd gone 65 miles on a California interstate on his back wheel. He was riding a KZ1300. He was a stunt rider and his name was Arto Nyquist. I really craved that bike.

Then someone stole my KZ1000. It wasn't insured for theft because theft insurance was expensive. I was then paying off a loan for a bike I didn't have any more. Then I got married. Then I had kids. Afterwards, there was never enough money for that bike of my dreams.

But in October, 2005 I found it. I came across a 1981 KZ1300 in a customer's backyard and bought it for $1000. It had a fairing and hard bags and an ugly paint job, but it was a KZ1300. It also needed work to get running. It was a project I dove into that winter. I tore off the touring junk to put it back to how it looked originally. I had a friend who owned a bike shop so I took it to him to tune up the engine and carbs.

One of my favorite memories is going to pick it up at the bike shop when it was ready. When I walked into his office there was a low rumbling sound coming from the back of the shop and my friend asked me if I liked the sound of my bike. It was the very first time I’d ever heard that engine running and I fell in love with that sound. The throaty exhaust sound reminded me of a buddy's TR6 Triumph sports car. My bike actually had more horsepower than that Triumph.

Then I had it painted black.

The thing rides like a train. And it's so smooth. There's no tingle through the grips like every other bike I've owned. Just smooth power through the gears right up to a theoretical 148 mph. I've cruised along at 100 mph but would never test my luck to find out the real top end. It's a 35 year old bike but it's an every day rider for me.

The last long ride I had on it was to the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was July and the weather was excellent. That place was meant to be seen by motorcycle, with the highest mountains in eastern Canada. Rugged terrain and ocean, that’s what I like.

Kind of like Greece.

See videos at:
Video YuouTube

www.motorcyclegreece.ca

Searching for Odysseus

Odysseus Statue in Vathy Harbour, Ithaca

 My brother got me a book for Christmas when I was about ten. It was called Theseus and the Minotaur and that book led to a lifelong fascination with Greek mythology for me. Since I retired a few years back I have been working on fulfilling dreams I’ve had since I was a kid. I wanted to walk on the ground where Hercules walked, see where the Spartans battled, climb the mountain where the oracle of Delphi held sway and see as many mythological places in Greece as I could while I was still able..

I have seen Knossos where King Minos built the underground labyrinth for the dreaded Minotaur, I’ve been to Thermopylae where the 300 Spartans made their last stand, walked within the Cyclopean walls of Tiryns, stood at the Lion’s Gate of Mycenae and combined my love of Greek history with motorcycling around this great country.

My most recent trip to Greece was to rent a motorcycle and ride solo for two weeks… as I’ve done several times. The Greek weather and the history of Greece keep bringing me back. But my last trip in May of this year was for an added reason…to find Odysseus. I mean to literally find the island of his home. The real Ithaca.

Ithaca 1976

The first time I went to the island of Ithaca was in 1976 while hitchhiking around Europe. I’d arrived on a ferry which came there only once a week. I was there for no more than a day when I fell asleep  sunning myself on a rocky beach near Vathy harbour. I ended up with sunstroke and was very sick for several days. I was taken to a little clinic in Mitikas back on the mainland by a kind fisherman where I recuperated. I remember the blisters on my back and having to carry my heavy backpack afterwards. I remember later in that trip, in Crete, walking from the hostel in Iraklion to Knossos with that backpack on so I was pretty tough way back then. That was about an 11 kms walk. I don’t hitchhike anymore since I can afford the luxury of a motorcycle to get where I want to go. But in 1976, Ithaca had eluded me.

Ithaca Storm

In September 2013 I went back to Ithaca after riding down from Athens to Sparta. The weather was good until the day after I arrived by ferry. The skies were ominous and grey and the weather forecast was not looking much better. Heavy winds and rain were called for and if you’re a biker that’s not good. But if you’re a biker in Greece that’s even worse when you’re in mountainous terrain on Greek pavement. That pavement is just different. It’s shiny and slippery even when it’s dry. Downshifting or braking going into corners can send you down pretty fast. So, when wet weather is added to the equation, discretion is the better part of valour. I took the next ferry to Astakos on the mainland because I had little time left to get back to Athens for my flight home. Again Ithaca had eluded me. The gods were against my seeing the home of the hero of the Trojan war.

My trip to Ithaca in May of this year was going to be different because I was seeking Odysseus’ home on a different island. I would be traveling to Kefalonia. It is another of the Ionian Islands which lies closest to Ithaca, less than an hour away by ferry.

Robert Bittlestone, an English writer had authored a book called Odysseus Unbound: The Search for Homer’s Ithaca which shook my world. Using Homer as his guide, he proposed something which amounted to a revelation to me. Kefalonia was the real home of Odysseus! My search for Odysseus’ kingdom had been on the wrong island in my past journeys. 

Homer was a blind poet who lived 3,000 years ago or so and wrote the greatest tales of our time, The IIiad and The Odyssey. These stories were full of names of people and places from a mysterious lost age and the gods who lived and walked among them. He named kings and ancient legendary cities that had been lost to the mists of time. Mycenae, Tiryns, Troy…these were mythological places that no more existed than Tolkien’s fictional cities of Mordor, Gondor, Moria. However, archaeologists rediscovered these lost cities and they did so by using Homer’s descriptions. It shocked people that these legendary places actually existed. 

Odysseus’ return home from the Trojan War took ten years. In Homer’s The Odyssey, he describes his home in this way:

Around her a ring of islands circle side-by-side,  

Doulichion, Same, wooded Zachynthos too, but mine

lies low and away, the farthest out to sea,  

rearing into the western dusk  

while the others face the east and breaking day.

As Bittlestone noted, present day Ithaca lies to the east of this little grouping of islands so it is not farthest out to sea. Kefalonia is furthest west. He studied the terrain of Kefalonia and saw that it was basically in two parts which were joined by an ithsmus. This western section of Kefalonia, called Paliki, was the original Ithaca according to Dr. Bittlestone. The convincing facts as he lays them out show that this is the only location for Ithaca that makes any sense when you consider Homer’s description of the island. Robert Bittlestone had become my hero and Odysseus Unbound my roadmap.

Paliki in background

Kefalonia Island lies on a major geological fault line and is subject to constant earthquake activity. In fact there was an earthquake earlier this year prior to my arrival there. It caused damage to roads and roofs (which are mainly comprised of clay tiles). In 1953, the whole island suffered a major 7.2 quake which caused a mass exodus to the mainland. That quake raised the island 60 cm. Two quakes in 2014 were 6.0 and 6.2 Richter scale. So seismic activity is nothing new to Kefalonia and to me it helps to explain the Paliki/Ithaca theory. 

Petani Beach, Paliki

I stayed on Kefalonia for a week, playing archaeologist and riding the mountainous coastal roads. I walked the hills of Paliki and viewed the vistas Odysseus must have viewed. Such a beautiful island with the greatest beaches in all of Greece. Myrtos Beach and PetaniBeach are in my opinion the most beautiful beaches in the world. Petani Beach is on the Paliki side of Kefalonia and surely must have been a favourite place of King Odysseus. 

The weather was excellent during my stay on Kefalonia and the ocean was crystal clear and calm. I savoured the feeling of floating in the salty water under that startlingly blue sky, knowing I’d finally done it. I had found Odysseus. It was almost like the gods welcomed me there, that this third trip to the real Ithaca was the charm.

As I write this it is with great sadness as I have learned that Robert Bittlestone  passed away earlier this year. I would have loved to have met him.

I know he now walks with Odysseus. 

The Odysseus Unbound Project continues and memorium can be found at:

http://www.odysseus-unbound.org/robert-bittlestone.html

More videos at www.motorcyclegreece.ca

Hockey Archaeology

I love Greek history. So many wars and such great mythology. Greeks invented democracy, so the people ruled with one man one vote. Thanks, Greece. Some suggest that if the Athenians hadn’t defeated the Persians at the battle of Marathon, our western civilization would not enjoy the freedom we now have. We’d be at the mercy of a dictator like it still is in much of modern Persia. Thanks again Greece. We owe you.

Greek inventions include the Catapult, the Map, the Odometer, the Analog Computer (check out the Antikythera mechanism), the Steam Engine and don’t forget the Olympics. Also, the Greek, Archimedes, was the Leonardo de Vinci of his time with many futuristic inventions.

But one invention isn’t in the history books.

I’ve visited Greece a number of times. But it was most recently on a visit to the Athens Archaeological Museum that I came upon a piece of Greek history that surprised me when I laid eyes upon it. It was the marble grave marker of a Greek soldier. It would appear that he was a hoplite (infantry) soldier who was also possibly an accomplished athlete. His sport? Refer to the picture and tell me what this sport is. If it isn’t a form of hockey, then I don’t know what else you would call it.

The sides of the base of this grave monument show soldiers in battle attire and war chariots. But the front of the statue base is the important scene because there are only carvings on three sides and the hockey scene is front and center. It shows six men playing hockey using curved sticks and a ball. This Greek soldier played our game.

This grave monument is from around 500BC and was found in the ancient cemetery of Athens, or the Kerameikos. A statue or “kouros” would have stood on this marble base but it is missing. It would be interesting to know what the statue was which stood on this base. Possibly an ancient hockey hero? Was he the Wayne Gretzky of his time?

I’m a Canadian guy who grew up like most Canadian boys of my generation who would rush home after school to get their hockey sticks and head for the road hockey game down the street. I don’t think much has changed since I was a kid and I’m almost sixty. Maybe video games have diminished the outdoor activity somewhat but the interest is still alive and kids have their hockey heroes just like I did.

I have read with awe about the Spartans and the incredible battle of Thermopylae. Knowing they had been betrayed and knowing they would die, King Leonidas and a small contingent of hoplites defended the narrow pass at Thermopylae (“hot gates”) against a half million Persian invaders for three days. On their final day, over breakfast and knowing their fate, Leonidas said “tonight we dine in Hades”.  In their final hour, the remainder of them perished in a hail of arrows which blocked out the sun. They are remembered for their bravery and I am inspired by their sacrifice. I have been to Thermopylae and I said a prayer for King Leonidas at the hot sulfur springs that still exist there.

I cannot contemplate having the kind of bravery they demonstrated.

But I can identify with that soldier who played our game. That is something I can understand. There was a connection there, in that lonely space in the museum between him and me. I felt it.

I know the argument rages about who invented “our” game and when it began. And I know this isn’t ice hockey. But this monument is part of hockey history and one I didn’t expect to find in a Greek museum alongside such beautiful ancient marble and bronze masterpieces. The history and mythology were impressive in that place but this odd little relic is what stuck with me as I departed the museum.

After all, hockey is more than just a sport. It’s a brotherhood. It’s almost a religion to some of us. We bleed our team colors. We teach our kids the game and see them participate, to play as a team and hopefully to become leaders. We watch our teams of hockey soldiers battle against the enemy teams. We criticize our hockey generals when the strategies they employ are not successful. Our victories are celebrated with parades and adulation. Heroes are made and worshiped. We speak about how the hockey gods give and how they take away.

Each year it begins again. All teams have a chance to win. The rules are tweaked and voted upon to try to make it fair and equitable for all.

Kind of like a democracy.



www.motorcyclegreece.ca